Process and apparatus for the continuous treatment of textile materials

ABSTRACT

THE PRESENT DISCLOSURE IS DIRECTED TO A CONTINUOUS PROCESS FOR PAD DYRING, PRINTING OR BLEACHING TEXTILE MATERIALS WHICH COMPRISES IMPREGNATING THE MATERIAL TO BE TREATED WITH THE TREATMENT LIQUOR, AND RAPIDLY AND UNIFORMLY HEATING-UP AND SETTING THE MATERIAL IN A TREATMENT CHAMBER WITH A GASEOUS OR VAPOROUS TREATMENT MEDIUM, SAID TREATMENT MENDIUM PENETRATING THE TEXTILE MATERIAL IN AN UPWARD DIRECTION SO THAT THE TEXTILE MATERIAL AT LEAST PARTIALLY RESTS ON A STEAM OR GAS CUSHION HEREBY ENSURING PROPER MATERIAL SHRINKAGE. THE PRESENT DISCLOSURE IS ALSO DIRECTED TO AN APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING THE ABOVE PROCESS.

p 23, 1971 H. FLEISSNER ETAL 3,608,109

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR THE CONTINUOUS TREATMENT OF TEXTILE MATERIALS Original Filed May 15, 1968 342 M... m2 4m. .R. @N v v mp n M w W TM E w A, k. a \N N 6 C m w w 3 3. NN Q q a Q s N N Q v \H/ N W Q Q Q& A: w

United States Patent Olfice 3,608,109 Patented Sept. 28, 1971 3,608,109 PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR THE CONTINU- OUS TREATMENT OF TEXTILE MATERIALS Heinz Fleissner and Gerold Fleissner, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, assignors to Vepa AG, Basel, Switzerland Original application May 15, 1968, Ser. No. 729,178, now Patent No. 3,529,447, dated Sept. 22, 1970. Divided and this application July 30, 1969, Ser. No. 871,144

Claims priority, application gegrmany, May 24, 1967, 33

Int. Cl. D06c N08 US. Cl. 8--149.1 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This is a division of application Ser. No. 729,178, now Pat. No. 3,529,447 filed vMay 15, 1968.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a process and apparatus for the continuous pad dyeing and/or printing or bleaching of textile lengths of materials, for example knitted tubes. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a process and apparatus which uses preparations which react under the influence of heat, for example dyestuffs which fix under the influence of heat. The present invention is particularly suited for the application of the space-dyeing process. However, it also olfers substantial advantages for continuous bleaching and/or dyeing processes.

The term space-dyeing is used to define a process in which the yarn is printed with several colors to obtain, after processing, a uniform irregular coloring of the piece goods. Space-dyed yarn is generally used for tufted carpets and also occasionally for woven and knitted fabrics. The advantages of space-dyed yarn are as follows:

(1) The yarn can be simultaneously printed with several colors.

(2) The danger of unlevel or uneven dyeings is substantially eliminated since the dyes are applied irregularly.

(3) Due to the multi-color eifect, the danger of producing Waste piece goods is substantially reduced.

(4) The length of the pieces to be made and their widths is without significance and also yarn from several 'batches can be used for one piece.

(5) Leveling agents, as they are used when continuously dyeing piece goods, can be dispensed with and, in general, cheaper dyestuffs can be used than in continuous dyeing.

(6) Seconds can be effectively processed using this method, that is, it is not necessary that the capacity of dyestulf absorption be absolutely uniform as is usually required for continuous dyeing.

For space-dyeing processes and the plants used for the application of this process it is necessary that the dyestuff application be as irregular as possible so that after processing there is no patterning in the ready piece. The term patterning designates stripes of one color in the ready fabric and/or the tufted carpet. These stripes have usually bizarre shapes. If patterning occurs, it is an indication that the color application was not irregular enough and generally that the printed patterns repeat too frequently. When handling texturized yarn, it is particularly necessary that the material be guided with as little tension as possible through the plant in order to avoid a removal of the texture which, in general is not yet fixed in the yarn. Another requirement is that with multi-color prints, marking off and/or smearing of the dyestuif particles adhering to the conveying elements must be avoided in continuous operation so that the desired multi-color effect is not contaminated.

Two methods for the production of multi-colored printed yarn are well known. These methods are as follows:

(a) The knit, de-knit method in which the yarn is processed, generally knitted to a tube or to a flat material length, and

(b) the yarn printing method in which the yarn threads are printed as they are.

The knit de-knit process can be subdivided into the following process stages:

(1) Knitting of the yarn, preferably to a tube, (2) dyestuff application,

(3) dyestuff fixation,

(4) washing and rinsing,

(5) drying, and

( 6) winding-up the yarn.

It is advantageous if the knitting and the winding stages are not included in the continuous treatment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to avoid the prior art disadvantages in the continuous pad dyeing and/or printing or bleaching of textile lengths of materials.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved process and apparatus for the continuous pad dyeing and/or printing or bleaching 'of textile materials wherein bleeding and marking oif of the individual color spots are substantially avoided so that clear contour lines are obtained.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved process and apparatus for the continuous pad dyeing and/or printing or bleaching of textile lengths of materials wherein said material is conveyed through the treatment stages in such a manner as to avoid the removal of the texture of the textile material.

Other objects and further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter; it should be under stood, however, that a detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description Pursuant to the present invention, it has been found that the above-mentioned disadvantages may be eliminated and a much improved process and apparatus for the continuous pad dyeing and/or printing or bleaching of textile materials may be obtained wherein the textile material which has been printed and/or padded with preparations, for example dyestuffs, bleaching agents, thickeners, and/or other common auxiliary agents and which have been dried, is penetrated by a gaseous or vaporous treatment medium. It has been found that an extremely rapid and uniform heating-up and treatment of the material can be obtained by said penetration, whereby bleeding and marking off of the individual color spots are avoided, so that clear contour lines are obtained. In a steaming process for dyestufi? fixation substantially less condensate deposits on the textile material and/or the condensate is distributed uniformly throughout the material thickness if the steam penetrates the material. Thus, the danger of dyestuff Ibleeding is substantially reduced.

It is of particular advantage if the textile material which has been printed with preparations is passed into the treatment atmosphere on a conveying element which is gas or steam-permeable and if in the treatment chamber the gaseous or vaporous treatment medium is blown up Wards against the textile material and or penetrates the textile material in an upward direction, so that the textile material simultaneously rests on a steam or gas cushion. In this manner proper material shrinkage is ensured with out unevenness or unlevelness and smearing caused by tensile stresses and/or by the movement of the material on the conveying element.

In order to keep the treatment chamber as small as possible it is suggested to have a single layer of the textile material penetrated by the treatment medium only during part of the heat-treatment, for example during the heating-up stage, and then to deposit the textile material in folds by overfeeding by about 15 to 30 times on a conveying element in the treatment atmosphere.

If textile materials with a high degree of shrinkage, for example texturized polyamide yarns are processed, it is suggested to deposit the textile material on the conveying element, which extends into the treatment atmosphere, with an overfeed which corresponds to the amount of shrinkage and/ or with a high degree of overfeed and to guide the textile material on this conveying element in the treatment atmosphere at least until the fiber fixation and/ or the shrinking process is substantially completed; After- Wards, the textile material can be stacked up in folds without being damaged in any way.

For the continuous treatment of lengths of textile materials, a device is suggested, the individual units of which are controlled jointly and arranged in the following combination:

(a) A driven material feed with a subsequent material accumulator,

(b) a unit for the application of the preparations, for example a padder and/ or a printing unit,

() an endless belt-like conveying element which is arranged between the printing unit and the subsequent heat-treatment unit and which preferably extends into the treatment chamber of the heat-treatment unit,

(d) a heat-treatment unit, for example a steaming unit,

with material penetration,

(e) possibly a washing or rinsing unit, preferably using sieve drum means, and

(f) possibly a dryer, preferably a sieve drum dryer with a folding or winding unit and possibly a material accumulator between the dryer and the folding or winding unit.

However, the device suggested above may also have the heat-treatment unit as the last unit if the heattreatment unit is designed as a hot air setting chamber, that is if the process used is for example a Thermosol-process. If the available floor space is limited, it is suggested to subdivide the plant behind the heat-treatment unit and to set up separately the washing and rinsing device with a subsequent dryer system. However, in this case extra costs are involved because at least one further operator is required.

For higher production, it is suggested to treat several textile lengths jointly in a side by side relationship. In this case one separately driven and controlled feeding unit for each material length should be installed in front of the unit for the application of the preparations. Such a plant is substantially less expensive than a plant which '4 operates at a correspondingly higher speed in order to reach the same production. Also the floor space requirements are smaller.

In order to avoid marking-off and smearing of the unfixed preparations, especially the printing color, it is furthermore suggested to associate with the last pair of squeeze rollers of the application unit, a winch and/or a slat roller which is arranged in such a way that the textile material is removed directly from the nip without resting against one of the two rollers.

The conveying element between the application unit and the heat-treatment unit should always be dry when taking over the material, and smearing of the dyestuif applied to the material must be avoided. These requirements can be complied with in a simple manner by using a sectional lattice belt as an endless belt-type conveying element, so that there are only linear points of contact between the printed material and the belt. It has been found to be of particular advantage if the support edges of the belt are Teflon-coated or are made of Teflon. Since the textile material, that is the knitted tube, for example texturized polyamide yarn is overfed onto the sectional lattice belt in an amount up to about 30% in order to ensure full shrinkage of the textile material during fixing, the textile material hangs in small loops between the individual support edges of the belt. It is of importance that the loops are not too large in order to avoid a removal of the texture by the wet textile material as well as sagging of the print color and thus a varying dyestuif fixation. Tests have shown that the distance between the individual supporting slats should not be larger than 150 mm. Preferably, the distance between the individual supporting slats is about 50 to mm.

It is suggested to make the sectional lattice belt of T- sectional slats which are laterally mounted to chains or elastic belts so that the T-sectional slats can be exchanged. This is possible if the slats for example are screwed to the belts or chains.

It is an advantageous feature of the present invention to provide at the inlet of the heat-treatment unit a blower, preferably a cross-current blower which blows the vaporous or gaseous treatment medium in an upward direction through the conveying element which extends into the treatment chamber. In this way the cushion provided by the current of the treatment medium carries the textile material during the heating-up process, during which period fiber setting and fiber shrinkage occur. The gas or steam cushion ensures an absolute tensionless treatment of the material being treated. Furthermore, it is desirable to arrange the blowing distance beneath the conveyor belt of the heat-treatment unit and to make said distance larger than the distance the sectional lattice belt extends into the treatment chamber. In this way the treatment medium produces a lifting efiect on the material disposed on the sectional lattice belt which extends into the treatment chamber and also on the textile material as it is deposited on the conveying element, for example a wire mesh belt, of the heat-treatment unit. Thus, when considering the distance the material must traverse when falling from the sectional lattice belt to the conveying element in the heat-treatment unit, the whole material weight does not act as tensile stress on the material but only the difference between the weight of the material and the lift produced by the blower acting on the material. Since generally very different yarns and/or material lengths of diiferent yarns, for example yarns of different numbers, are to be processed, it is advantageous if the height of the fall between the sectional lattice belt and the conveying element of the heat-treatment unit be adjusted and adapted with respect to the particular material. This can be effectively achieved by supporting'the inner deflector elements of the conveying element in such a way that they can be adjusted in height.

As already mentioned, the sectional lattice belt and the conveying element of the heat-setting unit, for example the steamer, must be dry when the Wet textile material is deposited thereon in order to avoid marking 01f. This can be ensured, for example, by correlating to each of these elements one drying blower. Also a common drying unit may be provided for these elements. Furthermore, the conveying element of the heat-treatment unit should be provided With a continuously operating washing unit. In addition, if, for example, a wire mesh belt is used as a conveying element between the printing unit and the heat-treatment unit, here also the use of a continuously operating washing unit would be advantageous.

In order to avoid too much sagging of the material between the sectional slats of the sectional lattice belt and thus the danger of sagging of the dyeing liquor, it is desirable, especially with materials with a high degree of shrinkage, to overfeed the material to the sectional lattice belt only to the degree of material shrinkage. In order to ensure that the distance between the sectional slats and the deflection thereof remain substantially the same, it is suggested to fasten the sectional slats on the lateral holding elements, for example on the chains, in such a way that the support edges of the sectional slats are situated in the pitch circle of the deflecting elements. Only with such a design can the elongation of the textile material be avoided. If the support edges extend beyond the pitch circle, the distance between the support edges becomes larger in the range of deflection so that there is the danger of an elongation of the textile material.

Because of the speed difference between the sectional lattice belt and the conveyor belt of the heat-treatment unit, for example the steamer, the textile material is overfed and/or folded onto the conveyor belt of the steamer. Tests have shown that the material length can be overfed by about 15 to 30 times. After being passed through the heat-treatment unit, the folds in the textile material are removed and the material length, that is the knitted tube, is passed through the suction drum Wash bowls and the sieve drum dryer. It is expedient to equip the sieve drum dryer with a chute at the discharge end and to design said chute longer than usual and with a curve portion in its lower end so that a material accumulator is obtained thereby. In this manner it is possible to accumulate in a continuous operation a certain quantity of material which is large enough to permit the subsequent folding or winding device to be switched off for a time so that the containers or rolls can be exchanged.

For controlling the device according to the present invention, a control assembly is suggested which comprises three drive groups which operate independently of each other. These drive groups include:

(a) An inlet drive which comprises an individual drive for each knitted tube and/or for each material length with one inlet element each, for example a pair of feed rolls, whereby the scanning device for each material length is arranged between the padder and the printing unit in order to ensure a uniform and tensionless material feed to the printing unit. The small speed differences between the individual feed rollers can be compensated for by the material quantity in the preceding material accumulator, so that the material feeding unit may generally be equipped with one common drive. However, it is also possible to provide one separately driven material feeding unit for each material length.

(b) A common drive for the padder, printing unit and heat-treatment unit, if possible with an infinite speed variation between the individual units and/ or their conveying elements. With this drive the speed of the plant is set and adjusted.

(c) The common drive for the washing machine and the dryer. This drive is controlled by a scanning device behind the heat-treatment unit. Here it is of advantage if the scanning device behind the heat-treatment unit is designed as a swiveling trough into which the textile -material drops into folds. The swivel position of the trough is determined by the quantity of material in the trough, and the swivel motion of the trough is translated to a potentiometer which controls the drive.

The afore-described plant is also well suited for bleaching and/ or for continuous dyeing, especially for the continuous dyeing of tricot. The printing unit in this case can be disposed of or bypassed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawing which is given by Way of illustration only and thus is not limitative of the present invention and wherein,

FIGS. 1a and lb are longitudinal sections of the apparatus according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the drawing, the apparatus of the present invention comprises textile material 1 to be processed being presented, for example, as a tube in a wound-up condition. In order to avoid tensile stress, a material feed 2 is preferably provided with an infinitely variable drive 3. Over a roller 4 which is advantageously driven, the textile material 1 is conveyed into a trough-shaped material accumulator 5 where a certain quantity of the textile material is deposited in an overfed, folded condition, and from where it is drawn off by means of a pair of rollers 6 before it is passed on to a padder 7. The padder serves for applying the primary color to the material. If white is chosen as the primary color, the padder can be bypassed. Between padder 7 and the subsequent printing unit 8 which contains pressure rollers 9, the material length forms a loop 10 which is scanned either by a light barrier or, as in the case of the embodiment of the invention shown by means of a scanner roller 11. With this loop the drive for the pair of rollers 6 is controlled. If several 'material lengths are arranged side by side, each loop is scanned individually and each pair of rollers 6 is controlled separately. In this way it is possible to feed the individual material lengths to the printing unit 8 with the same constant tension which should be as low as possible. It is desirable to attempt to achieve a tensionless feeding.

Behind the printing unit 8 a winch 12 is provided. The support edges of individual slats 13 are Teflon coated or the slats can be made of Teflon. The winch is provided in order to draw the textile material 1 out of the nip of the pressure rollers without the textile material resting against one of the pressure rollers. Contact with the pressure rollers results in contamination and a varying dyestuif application. It is advantageous to arrange the printing unit at a high level so that an endless belt-type conveying element 14 can be passed into a conveyor belt steamer 15 either horizontally or inclined slightly upwards. The conveying element 14 consists of a T-sectional lattice belt, the individual T-sections being screwed to lateral chains. To the support side of the T-section, Teflon slats are fastened which form the proper support edge. Instead of using Teflon slats the support side of the T-section may instead be coated with Teflon.

A conveyor belt steamer 15 is a particularly important component of the plant as shown. The steamer is provided with an endless Wire mesh belt 16 which extends out of the treatment chamber 17 at its discharge end and its inlet end and which is returned from the discharge end to the inlet end beneath the treatment chamber. The treatment chamber is provided with a pre-chamber 18 subjected to a suction draft at the inlet end thereof and the steam-air mixture forming in the pre-chamber is drawn off. The wire mesh belt 16 as Well as the conveying element 14 are passed through the pre-chamber 18. 'In the treatment chamber 17 a cross-current blower 19 is provided beneath the wire mesh belt 16 for circulating the steam. In the inlet portion of the treatment chamber the cross-current blower blows the steam upwards through the wire mesh belt and the conveying element 14 as well as through the textile material 1 resting on the belts. The capacity of the blower is adjusted in such a way that the textile material rests only to a slight degree on the conveying element 14 and mainly on a steam cushion. The textile material 1 is thereby substantially penetrated by the steam, heated up in a shock-like manner and fixed during this treatment. Thus the material which is overfed to the conveying element so that small loops are formed may shrink tensionless. By free fall, the textile material 1 is deposited on the wire mesh belt 16 in folds whereby the textile material is generally overfed about to 30 times. At the discharge end of the treatment chamber 17 a water seal 20 is provided with an immersion roller 21. For the continuous cleaning of the wire mesh belt 16 a continuously operating device 22 for the wire mesh belt 16 is provided outside the treatment chamber 17. A drying device (not shown) can be correlated to the washing device.

The folded textile material is then passed into trough 23 which is swivel mounted and which actuates a potentiometer and controls the speed of the subsequent washing machine 24 and the sieve drum dryer 25. The washing machine 24 is provided with treatment bowls containing sieve drums 26 subjected to a suction draft and with squeezers 27. The last bowl serves for applying a finishing agent. In this bowl an immersion roller 28 is provided instead of a sieve drum 26. The sieve drum dryer is provided in a well known way with sieve drums 29 subjected to a suction draft over which the textile material is alternately passed and with a chute 30 at the discharge end which is longer than the chutes of the well known dryers and which is designed as a trough. At the sieve drum dryer 26 a folding frame 31 is arranged by means of which the textile material 1 is folded into wagons 32.

The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.

We claim:

1. A continuous process for pad dyeing, printing or bleaching textile materials which comprises impregnating the material to be treated with the treatment liquor,

and rapidly and uniformly heating-up and setting the material in a treatment chamber with a gaseous or vaporous treatment medium, said treatment medium penetrating the textile material in an upward direction so that the textile material at least partially rests on a steam or gas cushion thereby ensuring proper material shrinkage.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the steam-treated textile material is washed by passing it through at least one washing bowl where the washing liquor is drawn through the textile material by a suction draft, dried and consolidated in a container.

3. The process of claim 2, wherein after washing, a

finishing agent is applied to the' textile material before it is dried.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein a single layer of the textile material is penetrated by the treatment medium only during the initial portion of the heat-treatment, said textile material being deposited in folds for the remaining portion of said heat-treatment.

5. The process of claim 4, wherein the folds are produced by over-feeding the textile material about 15 to 30 times. I

6. The process of claim 4, wherein the textile material is over-fed to the initial portion of the heat-treatment cor responding to the amount of shrinkage of said material.

7. The process of claim 1, wherein several lengths of textile material are treated jointly in a substantially parallel relationship.

8. A continuous process for pad dyeing, printing or bleaching textile materials which comprises impregnating the material to be treated with a treatment liquor, and rapidly and uniformly heating-up and setting the material in a treatment chamber by blowing steam upwards through the textile material, thereby reducing the fricton between the textile material and the conveying surface so that the textile material at least partially rests on a steam cushion which ensures proper material shrinkage.

9. The process of claim 8, wherein the steam-treated material is subsequently washed by conveying it on the surface of at least one sieve drum means, subjected to a suction draft wherein the washing liquor is drawn through the textile material and finally dried by conveying the textile material through a sieve drum drier on the surface of at least one sieve drum means subjected to a suction draft, wherein the drying medium is drawn through the textile material.

10. The process of claim 8, wherein the steam is blown upwards through the textile material in the first portion of the treatment chamber in a shock-like manner.

11. The process of claim 8, wherein the textile material is introduced into the treatment chamber in folds, thereby permitting a tensionless shrinking of the textile material.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,469,249 5/1949 Vincent etal 8149.1X 2,785,042 3/1957. Grajeck et a1 689X 3,074,775 l/1963 Oldershaw 8--151.2 3,087,320 4/1963 Fleissner 68-19.1 3,104,932 9/1963 Horn et al 8l49.3X 3,242,702 3/1966 Fleissner 685 3,293,675 12/1966 Willis 8l49.1 3,466,899 9/1969 Drago 68--5 3,504,999 4/1970 Drago 8-149.1X

WILLIAM I. PRICE, Primary Examiner P. R. COE, Assistant Examiner 

